Page 60 of Anathema

“See her, you shall, but first, follow me.”

I lifted my bound hands for him, to which he offered a slight smile. “Perhaps we’ll leave those bindings in place.”

Whatever small bit of relief I’d felt a moment ago fizzled away.

He walked toward the manor, glancing over his shoulder. “Come on.”

With another brief glimpse of Uncle Riftyn clambering to his feet, I followed after Moros, though not because I trusted him. After what had happened to the Lyverian girl, I’d neither forgive, nor trust him, at all. I followed only for the promise of seeing my sister.

Once inside the manor, he led me past the kitchen to a stairwell, beyond the mudroom and storage pantry. The sight of it stirred both curiosity and trepidation, but I followed him, anyway. We descended into an enormous, open space, like grandfather’s wine cellar, but with higher ceilings and the glow of light. I turned to see a lamp blazing a bright blue.

“Azurmadine. Found in the caves of Sawtooth. When burned, it gives off a magnificent glow,” he said, as we passed.

I’d never laid eyes on anything more compelling than that light, but I didn’t bother to say anything in response, my mind anxious and desperate to see my sister.

I wanted to ask him why he’d killed the Lyverian girl. Why he’d beaten her so cruelly, as I was certain he’d been the one to put those bruises upon her, but I didn’t dare say anything to offend him right then.

A wall to the left of me, made up of dozens of small niches, housed glass jars of varying sizes. A closer inspection on passing showed unusual creatures held within–a snake with two heads, a tiny octopus, strange looking wings, a brain, a skinned rat, and what looked like a fetus. Oddities I would’ve found disturbing, if not for the distraction of my sister.

She was all I could think about right then, and the brewing frustration of every wasted minute weighed heavily as he led me down the corridor.

We rounded a stone wall to another partition of the cellar, and once inside, my heart ground to a halt.

An impossibly bright light glowed from a glass enclosure that was filled with water and almost reached the ceiling. Within the tank, two figures swam about, their arms propelling them, giving the impression they were human, but their legs appeared bound together, as if attached. Bits of strange-looking cloth dangled from their feet like loose fins, their faces covered by masks attached to tubes.

The tubes connected to a box, where another glass enclosure held some sort of accordion structure that contracted and expanded, releasing a boisterous whoosh each time it collapsed. I studied it, my mind puzzling the scene. The accordion moved like a lung. Air. Air feeding the masks.

“What is this?” I asked, my chest tightening the more details I took in–the tiny stitching between their thighs and the shells that did an inadequate job of covering their private parts.

“A bit of a collection.” Hands behind his back, he walked to the other side of the tank, facing me from that angle, his eyes beaming with a sickening fascination. “When I was a boy, my father took me to a fair, a traveling band of filthy nomads. I was intrigued by one of the exhibits, though. A collection of curiosities. Taxidermy, and jars filled with strange little specimens, like you saw on the wall a moment ago. There was also an exhibition of biological rarities they called The Freak Show. And that was the first time I laid eyes on the mermaids. Deliciously mysterious women said to inhabit the sea and attack ships.” He ran his fingers over the glass, staring at the women as if mesmerized. “I was enamored with the idea of these dangerous, wild women. I wanted to capture one. Tame it into my own little pet. I was a little disappointed to learn that the women at the fair were nothing more than a parlor trick. So, I decided to make my own collection.”

Nausea twisted inside of me like poisonous worms in my belly. In that moment, I decided Uncle Riftyn and even Agatha were far less terrifying.

“When I came across a Lyverian village, I took notice of two sisters, not much older than you. They ran half-naked with spears and rage. Wild as boars. My god, how I longed to break them. So, I made a deal with their father. I would spare their village. Their people. So long as he gave me his daughters. Of course, he refused, as any good father would. But he came around once we’d slaughtered his wife and two of his sons.”

“You’re a monster,” I whispered. I lifted my gaze toward the women, whose palms were plastered against the glass, the strands of macerated skin that’d peeled from their raw hands floating around their fingers.

His dark chuckle echoed around me, sending a wave of terror down my spine. “Yes. I suppose, to some, I am a monster. Let your sister be a lesson. Wild and unruly women have no place in this world. You’re meant to be tamed, or put down, if necessary.”

“I want to see her. You told me I could see my sister.”

“You will see her. At the toll of the bell, my dear, she will stand before The Eating Woods. And you will watch as her vibrant spirit is broken by fear. You will look upon her face and remember the remorse burning in her eyes.”

Copper hit my tongue as I bit my cheek, desperate to hold back tears. I refused to let him see the effect his words had on me. How they stirred a cold and hollow panic in my gut. “You clearly do not know my sister.”

“If only I’d had the ambition to take her, as well. I would have added her to my collection of magnificent creatures. Come. I have another to show you.”

“I don’t want to see it,” I spat back.

“Oh, but you must! It is perhaps the most fascinating of my collection. And I suspect you’ll appreciate this one.” He lurched toward me, and I took a step back, but he swiped up my bound hands, giving a hard yank.

With reluctant steps, I followed after him, wriggling my wrists to get loose as I caught one more glimpse over my shoulder of those poor women.

He led me to another room, where snarls and growls bounced off the walls. From the shadowed corner, something watched us. “You remember the good captain who sat next to you at brunch? The one who groped you under the table?”

A loud clank of chains answered in response, the sound of them scraping over the cement floor. A figure shot out from the shadows, and once in the flickering blue light, I took in its grotesque form. Fear knotted in my chest, squeezing my lungs, as I trailed my gaze over the terrifying deformity. It stood bent forward, its spine sticking up through the skin in spikes that reminded me of a lizard. Half its face had melted into a blank canvas of skin with no eyes, nose or teeth. The other half was a sunken eye socket, a deformed nose, and a skull jaw with teeth sharpened to points. Milky white skin served as a translucent barrier to the map of veins that pulsed with each pump of its heart, which protruded through its skin.

Jaw agape, I could scarcely breathe as I took in its monstrous form.

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